HOW MUCH CAN YOUR LAND EARN YOU IN 5 YEARS WITH EUCALYPTUS FARMING?BY JOHN OMOLLOWell lets find out; The below figures are profits so the expenses have been deducted. Except for land, so if you are planning to venture into this investment and you don't have a land deduct 200,000 per acre for the number of acres you want to plant the trees from the total sum of 'INCOME FOR 5-8 YEARS' , Remember this should coincide with the number of acres you want to invest in.I have further simplified the earnings per year and per month just to show you how much you would be earning per month if it was an investment to do with per month income. If you want to venture into this investment, this is the right time and in the year 2020 you will be a millionaire only 5-8 years.You may feel free to contact us and lets make your dream come into a reality.﻿At our nurseries we have the fastest growing eucalyptus trees, sorted, tried and planted before, if you are checking the below income figures in disbelief you may want to read this from timber experts. Lets have a look supposedly why you have planted an acre or two or three before of this trees and never achieved the income or maybe even close or you were so close to the below figures.﻿POSSIBLE REASONS WHY YOU NEVER MADE OR YOU WILL NEVER MAKE HUGE PROFITS WITH EUCALYPTUS TREES.

ITS JUST PLANTING A TREE

For starters and for many Africans its just planting a tree digging that hole and then planting the tree and maybe watering the first day or if it is in the rainy seasons you ignore the tree with an anticipation that it will rain, if it doesn't rain what happens is, the tree is already in shock due to transplanting, for one or two days without water the tree dries so if you had 100 trees you have 99 trees, so from that scenario count how many trees you will loose and this will greatly affect your earnings and total income come the 5th year.Control Measure to thisPlanting a tree especially for commercial purposes needs great care, its not about just digging a hole and planting you need to do more than that, dig a deep hole usually measured with a size of tree and plant the tree carefully and if there are many trees choose a day when it have just rained heavily and the soil is very moist since if they are 20,000 trees maybe you cant afford to irrigate them but if you can well and good. Make sure the tree have been compacted with the new soil and planted at a certain depth such that even if strong winds or rains hit the young seedling the roots wont be exposed and when the sun shines dries up the roots and the tree eventually. for more on planting read this.We love to plant trees for our clients so that they achieve the maximum yields in future years from their investment.

REPLACING OF DEAD SEEDLING

Dying seedlings after planting is a common phenomena when you have planted them, this is due to among many other factors, failing to plant the seedling well (refer to the reason 1 above) or even just dying due to other environmental conditions. If a farmer don't tend to his newly planted seedlings most them die and since he is not there like almost every time, he will just having a look by far thinking the trees are doing well. It is estimated almost 20-30 percent of newly planted tree seedlings die (also depend on tree type) if not taken care of, and at the end of 5 years the farmer will harvest half of the income shown in my table below.

Control Measure to thisThis is where we come in, after we plant your trees and even after frequent visits to your farm some will die of course since they are live, but what we will do is to make sure we replace each and every tree that have died at no charge. You don't need to buy from us again. We usually take all the burden and expenses to make sure your investment is secure, by doing so you can be assure of your almost full investment and i can confidently say that you are almost few steps closer to realizing the below income come the 5th year of your investment.

WEEDING, FERTILIZERS, & MANURE

Yes manure, fertilizer and weeding, this is where most farmers go wrong once the trees have grown for like 1 year they as well tend to neglect them and that's a mistake. You will even find some farmers with trees as young as they are in the field they will start grazing cows and sheep in the name of controlling grass, this is a mistake you know why? when you are grazing this flock in your 1 year tree plantation they are not only eating grass but as well tampering with the growth of the trees some will even break and by grazing the flocks as many times within the early years of your tree development will reduce your income since many trees will be broken and even if they will thrive again as they will always do they wont make the grade 1 tree for timber. Basically its estimated when grazing your animals in your tree plantation 10% of the total amount of trees will suffer breakage not counting the other factors till the trees matures.Manure and fertilizers are essential for this young trees growth don't neglect them if you want maximum yields. Fertilizers and manure application can be applied up to the 4th year.

Control MeasureBelow are ways of controlling the above common practice.

AGROFORESTLYIn Wikipedia the term is defined as:"Agroforestry or agro-sylviculture is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems"And i agree with the definition. This practice is common among us where the trees are grown its one of the best when it comes to caring of your trees. It also have a big advantage being you will be planting crops like maize, beans etc while still weeding for your trees and this as well makes it easier for you to apply fertilizers and sometimes manure to the trees.Agroforestly cant be practiced beyond 4 years in a well tree planted land as the shade of the trees and also roots will hinder the crops to grow. So this is a stage where you can now graze your flocks the trees are big and the cows and sheep cant interfere with the trees, By doing this you will curb the grass to grow tall and also curb the fires that might burn your trees because when this grass is so tall and it dries then someone comes just out of jealous and burn the grass your trees will also burn. So grazing in this fields is important at this stage, besides its an excellent ecosystem.

APPLICATION OF HERBICIDES.This is not a common control practice. This is a practice where by selective herbicide is sprayed to curb and kill grass and leave the trees growing. This is not common and its rarely used.

MARKET AND SELLING

I know this is a common question to aspiring farmers who are reading this article now, but if i tell you that it will take over 50 years to satisfy the demand of trees in Africa would you believe it? Yes that's true. Wood price is raising every day and its estimate that in the year 2025 wood price will be over 4 times than it is now.One mistake that farmers make when selling their trees is dealing with middle men or brokers as they are commonly called, since they want to make some money out of your investment you have waited for 5 or so years to mature, instead of buying a tree from you at 4000 Kenya shillings they want to buy the tree at 2 or 3000 Kenya shillings at the end of the day your investment will not coincide with the below figures from our table of income.